Citizen Leadership

In February the University of Southern California Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy held its 2016 National Leadership Forum on the topic of “Philanthropy and Government: Public Problem Solving at the Intersection.” Two hundred thirty philanthropists, policy leaders, consultants, and scholars came together in Los Angeles to talk about topics like impact investing, community development, immigration, charter schools, and the Affordable Care Read More ›

The spirited exchange between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on what constitutes “New York values” was a high point of the Charleston Republican debate. Trump won the televised exchange, citing the Big Apple’s heroic response to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. The normally articulate Cruz was unable to effectively respond, despite knowing in advance of the debate that Trump had assailed Cruz’s off-the-cuff Read More ›

Amidst the horrific news all over the globe, this holiday season has been a time to count our blessings, and pray for better days ahead for all civilized humanity and for deliverance from atavist barbarism. This season brings us the gift of Francis Albert Sinatra (1915–1998), in the marking of his birth centennial. Nearly seven years ago I penned a TAS article, Awaiting Read More ›

The substantiveness of the Fox Business/Wall Street Journal GOP presidential debate Tuesday night gave the lie to media complaints that the presidential candidates had been seeking to turn the GOP debates into toothless Safe Spaces. After the CNBC debate, with its unabashedly biased moderation job, several candidates held a post-debate meeting and proposed new rules, including a 67-degree temperature stage, no Read More ›

In his Seattle Times op-ed, DI President Steven J. Buri reminds us to thank our fellow citizens who choose to place their names on a ballot. At a time when many Americans are fed up with politics, we should take a moment to appreciate those that aspire to public service — often at great personal sacrifice and little personal gain. Read More ›

As someone who has run for public office — once in vain and twice successfully — I understand the experience of candidates and elected officials. I therefore wish to honor those who have just completed another grueling campaign season. I do so as someone leaving public office and returning to life as a private citizen. In December, I will retire Read More ›

There supposedly are 36 candidates vying for the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Charlie Cook calls the field “flat.” That means, I think, that no one is clearly ahead. How does the public sort it out? The media will run stories with manufactured exposes, jabber about “gaffes” (like the exaggerated reaction to Jeb Bush’s answer to questions about the Iraq War), Read More ›

“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T. S. Eliot, but for Britain’s Liberal Democrats and Labor (er, Labour) the cruelest month will always be May. In particular, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Milliband of Labour will never forget the very night in May when each was stricken with what might be called “Sudden Onset SDD”— Staff Deprivation Read More ›

Discovery Sr. Fellow George Gilder and other “elders” of the privatized Internet era expressed their alarm over drive by the FCC and Obama Administration to put Internet innovation under federal regulation in the name of “Net Neutrality”. They want an “open Internet” instead.

The Daily Caller said, “Tech elder George Gilder, a futurist author and co-founder of the Discovery Institute, told TheDCNF that businesses have no incentive to interfere with Internet freedom. ‘Their interests are aligned with an open Internet,’ he noted, ‘and the idea that Title II can impose an open internet is just quixotic.'”

A sizable media contingent covered the “elders” presser, and noted the significance of leaders such as Bob Metcalf, John Perry Barlow, Mark Cuban and Scott McNeilly, among others, speaking out on a controversial subject. Daniel Berniger organized the event.

George Gilder advised me today that the Internet companies now represent almost half the value of the NASDAQ and that putting the FCC into the role of regulating them–using the old telephone company model of 1934–could greatly damage economic growth. “It’s Obama’s biggest socialist grab so far,” Gilder said. Read More ›

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next week on the Corker/Menendez bill to require a subsequent vote on any Iran deal that the Obama Administration completes by early summer. There is great uncertainty about everything involved, however. To start with, the Iranians and the American Administration are saying contradictory things about what they have “agreed” on. Increasingly, as the Israelis Read More ›